Rix Enchères

18th century bronze gourd
Height: 30 cm Width: 20 cm Depth: 10 cm
Relatively rare piece, some museum examples described in particular at the Norton Simon Museum.
In China, the golden frog is the symbol of "brings money." According to Chinese tradition, these examples could therefore represent a symbol of good fortune in the material sense of the term. This example also has quite interesting iconography. The body of the gourd merges with the body of a frog while the neck springs from its mouth. Some of these gourds were set with semi-precious stones according to Nepalese tradition. This is not the case with our example.
On the front of the gourd's body, two vignettes represent auspicious signs. The left vignette represents a conch shell while the right vignette an infinite knot. The neck of the gourd is also worked and features a fantastical animal (dragon and/or snake) on the back. These gourds were used by pilgrims as a water reserve during major Buddhist pilgrimages
In literature, I also found a flask designed according to the same iconographic principle, but Chinese, and depicting a fish whose neck also springs from the animal's mouth. This type of flask was apparently used as a wine flask.

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